Computer Scientist, Professor Arthur Samuel

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Arthur L. Samuel, a computer scientist who did early research on machine learning and artificial intelligence, died July 29 in Stanford University Memorial Hospital. He was 88.

Mr. Samuel, who lived in Portola Valley, Calif., and was profesor emeritus of computer sciences at Stanford, died of complications from Parkinson`s disease, a university spokesman said.

He did pioneer work on the thesis that mechanisms could be designed to learn just as humans learn. Beginning in the 1940s and for 20 years thereafter, he worked on writing a computer program in the experimental environment of game playing.

Mr. Samuel developed a program that enabled computers to compete successfully with champion checker players.

He also invented several seminal techniques in rote and generalization learning.

At Stanford he helped program some of the early time-sharing systems at the university`s artificial intelligence laboratory and worked on early versons of word processors.

Mr. Samuel, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the Stanford faculty in 1966 after working at International Business Machine Corp. for 17 years and retiring as director of research communications at IBM`s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Before that he spent 18 years with Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he did research on electron tubes that helped lead to the development of television. He was awarded more than 50 patents for his inventions.

Mr. Samuel also taught at MIT and at the University of Illinois from 1946 to 1949, and helped establish the university`s computer laboratory.

He was a consultant to the National Security Agency and was chairman of the Joint Services Committee on electron devices.

Mr. Samuel is survived by two daughters, four grandchildren and a brother.